Dick and His Cat and Other Tales Part 16

8. A VISIT TO SNOWDROP.

1. As Betty's brood was now grown old enough to go into the world, she had plenty of time to pay Snowdrop a visit. So she went off one fine morning and found her near the brink of the pond.

2. Snowdrop was using her orange bill as a shovel to catch leeches in the mud. Betty told her that she had come to have a chat with her. She wished to speak about the way in which she had brought up her children.

3. "I am sure, my dear Snowdrop," said Betty, "that cold water was the death of all your lost ducklings, no matter what you or any other bird may say.

4. "You are a strong duck, and so it has not hurt you yet. But you see that your frail little ones are all gone. It is all through your careless habit of letting them dabble in the mud all day and get their feet wet."

5. "Nonsense!" said Snowdrop, as, with an eye dark and bright as that of Betty, she glanced at her own orange legs and webbed feet.

6. "Nonsense! It is all nature, and runs in the blood," she said. "My mother before me, and her mother before that, knew that water never hurts a duck. It hurts us to be kept dry!

7. "And as for catching cold or getting fits, or cramp, or the pip--can you do this?" And as she spoke, Snowdrop waddled down the steepest part of the bank.

8. She set her breast for a moment against the tiny ripples of the pond until she was in water deep enough to swim in. Then, all of a sudden, she turned herself upside down.

9. Her head went below, and nothing of her could be seen above but a tail, and two yellow legs. She stayed so long like this, grubbing for water-snails, that Betty began to fear she should never see her head again.

10. But she popped it out again in a few minutes, and came sailing with a saucy quack back again to the bank. "Do I look any the worse?" said she.

11. Betty held her tongue. She still thought, as she had done before, that no matter what Snowdrop did, cold water was bad for ducklings.

12. A young Bantam hen, who was standing by, said to Betty, "Where can you have come from, and what sort of egg did you creep out of, not to have seen a duck swim before?" said the Bantam.

13. "All the yard knows that they are the best sailors in the world!

But for you and me, our ruffles are too well starched for such a way of life."

[Ill.u.s.tration: UPSIDE DOWN.]

14. Here was a new wonder to Betty. Though a shower of rain soaked all her fine feathers through, and made them limp as old rags, Snowdrop came out of the pond dry and warm, her plumes crisp and neat.

15. Not a trace of water was to be seen on her. Well, to be sure! Betty could not make it out. After all there must be a thing or two which even the wisest hen does not know.

16. "I advise you to carry oil in your feathers when you learn to swim," said Snowdrop, as she skimmed off again over the pond. "That is my plan, but ducks are too wise to boast about it."

_Write:_ Betty went to see the duck. She felt much surprise at seeing her swim and dive. But she still thought that water was not good for ducklings.

Questions: 1. Where did Betty find Snowdrop? 2. What did Betty say to her? 3. What did the Bantam hen say? 4. What did Snowdrop do to show Betty? 5. What did Betty still think about ducklings? 6. How was it that the duck's feathers were not wet?

9. SNOWDROP'S NEST.

1. Weeks went by. Snowdrop thought that it was time for her to bring some more little ducklings into the world, instead of those which she had lost.

2. So, down among the green rushes at the very brink of the pond, she made a nest. It was not much more than a bundle of straws which the wind had swept into that place but it did very well.

3. Snowdrop had poked the straws into a heap with her beak. She trod them down with her feet, made a round hole with her breast in the middle, and put a few feathers inside.

4. In this rough nest she laid seven pale green eggs, and very pretty they looked. Betty no sooner heard of this, than she ran as fast as she could to the spot. She had a kind thought in her head.

5. She had now no little ones of her own; and somehow, though she laid an egg each day in the wicker nest, it was always gone before night. So she had nothing to sit on.

6. And so it had come into her good heart that she would offer to sit on Snowdrop's eggs for her. "I promise you to do it well," said she to the duck.

7. "If you trust me with your eggs I will treat them just as if they were my own. And when the young are hatched I will nurse the dear little things, teach them, and bring them up better than you could do yourself."

8. The duck, who just then saw her drake bowing his head to her as he swam along, thought that she would like to join him on the pond.

9. Snowdrop loved pleasure. Why should she sit cooped up on a nest for four weeks, when she might be having fun on the pond? Betty was willing to do it for her.

10. She liked hunting for slugs and worms, or swimming races with her drake, better than sitting still. So she said "yes" to Betty's offer and marched off.

11. The good little hen climbed as well as she could on to the nest; but she did not half like the look of it. Why, the eggs were ready to roll out at the sides! And her body was not so big as that of Snowdrop, neither were her wings so wide.

12. It was a great job for her to keep the large eggs under cover at all, but she shook out her feathers and spread out her wings as far as they would go, though it made them ache.

13. Then she felt nervous because the pond was so near. "It is bad for eggs to get damp!" she said to herself. "What could make that foolish Snowdrop choose such a place? And I dare say that I shall get the cramp too."

14. But she sat on bravely for all that. Betty never left the eggs of which she was taking care, except for a few moments when she was forced by hunger to run to the yard.

15. The good farmer's wife saw her racing there one day. She watched her pick up some corn in a great hurry and then rush off. She went after Betty and saw her get into the nest of the duck, to sit there after her hasty meal.

_Write:_ The hen wished to sit on the eggs of the duck. She did not leave them except to get food when she was hungry. The wife of the farmer found the eggs.

Questions: 1. What did Snowdrop make among the rushes? 2.

How many eggs did she lay? 3. What did the hen offer to do?

4. What did Snowdrop say? 5. How did Betty get food? 6. Who saw her running back to the eggs?

10. THE WEE DUCKS.

1. "Pretty dear!" said the farmer's wife to Betty, as she saw her climb gently on to the eggs and spread out her small wings as far as she could.

2. "This will never do," she went on. "If you want to hatch them, my pretty, you had better do it in your own nest."

3. So she stooped down, stroked Betty's white back softly, and then, with a firm, gentle hand, pushed her aside while she took all the seven eggs into her ap.r.o.n.

4. At first Betty did not like it. She did not know what Snowdrop would say, and besides, she had a longing inside her to finish the job. She wanted to see the dear little things come from the sh.e.l.ls.

5. "I shall love them as my own," said she, "unless the farmer's wife takes them from me." But she was quite happy when she saw the eggs placed safely in her own snug dry nest.

6. Betty sat on the eggs for three long weeks. She knew that was the proper time to wait for her own broods. But still no sign of the young ones was to be seen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HER OWN SNUG NEST.]